Verity has launched its family banking and financial literacy app, with a prepaid Visa card to enable children from the age of eight to start building their personal finance skills in a real-life environment.

The platform allows parents to control the overall family account while giving each child the option to create and manage their profile. Parents can top up their digital wallets directly from their bank accounts and then allocate a set amount to each user in the family through pre-scheduled monthly or weekly allowance or one-off transfers.

Children also have the option to ‘earn’ money by completing chores and tasks set by their parents. Once they have received their funds, kids are prompted to decide how much they would like to contribute to personal or family savings goals, charitable initiatives, or their spending budget.

Verity has partnered with Visa and MENA virtual and physical card provider NymCard, to issue personalised debit cards that are fully integrated into the app and allow children to make purchases online and in stores, within parameters set by their parents.

Parents then have full visibility on every transaction made by their child and receive real-time reports on family and individual spending, giving them the ability to guide their children’s financial journey in a more informed way.

The launch comes following Verity’s latest bridge round, backed by global investors, which brings the total amount raised including its pre-seed round to over US$1.2 million.

The additional capital will be used to develop new app features and facilitate customer acquisition activities, while also fueling the company’s expansion into new markets across the MENA region.

Omar Al-Sharif, Co-founder of Verity, said:

“The Verity app has been built specifically for families in the region – and with more than 200 nationalities with highly varied lifestyles living in the UAE alone, that has meant accommodating an incredibly diverse audience.”

Omar Onsi, CEO and Founder of NymCard, said:

“Verity is building a valuable use case that solves real pain points for families in the MENA region. We are proud to be playing a role in this milestone and we look forward to seeing Verity scale their product seamlessly on our Banking-as-a-Service infrastructure.”